It takes you back to where a photo was taken, so you can take it again.
The same corner, about a hundred years apart. Historic photo: “Masonic Building, ca 1924,” San Leandro Historical Photograph and Document Collection.
The pair is the product. Every shot comes out as the two photos together: split, stacked, one wiping into the other, a blend, or one tucked inside the other. Swipe through a few.
Transformations take many forms. Somewhere to start:
The good ones are probably things nobody would think to photograph twice. Be creative, and share your work with others!
It's on the App Store, free, for anyone with an iPhone. The next update goes to TestFlight a week or so before it reaches the store. Pick which one of these makes sense for you.
iPhone only for now. If enough people ask for Android or an iPad version I'll look at it. Tell me on the list.
New builds go to TestFlight, Apple's free app for trying things before they ship, a week or so before they reach the App Store. Tap the button, let it install TestFlight if you don't have it, and Vantage Point lands beside your normal apps. It uninstalls clean.
Try the next build on TestFlight
Leave your email too and you'll get the notes when a new build goes out. That part is optional.
No testing, nothing extra to install. I'll email you when a big update lands, and every so often after that when there's something worth showing you.
Already testing? Bugs and ideas go to the feedback form, and testers compare pairs in r/VantagePointApp.
The signup form is run by Kit, so that part talks to them. Kit also tells me whether an email got opened. That's all I see. I'm not going to sell your address or hand it to anybody, and one line in any email gets you off the list for good.
My family takes the same picture in the same spot in Yosemite Valley every autumn. Every year we'd stand there trying to remember how we managed it the year before. Where the camera went, who stood where, which way to aim. We'd get close. Close was never the same as right.
What bugged me is that we're all walking around with a very good camera and a pile of sensors in one pocket, and none of that hardware was any help with the one job I actually wanted done. So I started building something that would put the sensors to work.
The idea grew from there. The same corner of the garden every spring. The same first day of school picture, year after year.
Tools and new technology have always fired up my creative side. Once the vision really started to come together in a working app, this became the way I wanted to share the idea with others.
Anything on your device, or a scan of an old print. You can also use Photos near me to pull up shots that were taken close to where you're standing. Whichever you pick becomes the reference for the spot, and everything else works back from there.
The app pulls the strong edges out of the old photo and puts them on your screen as focus lines. Getting back to the spot becomes a matter of walking until the lines land on the real thing, one at a time, instead of guessing from memory.
As you go, the app gives you suggestions and tools to help you frame it correctly and get the picture set.
The old photo sits over what your camera is seeing, so you can watch the lines settle onto the real thing. Move your feet, not just the phone, and watch where you're stepping. When it looks right to you, take the picture.
Nudge, rotate or scale either photo until the two sit exactly how you want, then pick how the pair goes out. Side by side, stacked, one fading into the other, or as a wipe. Save the finished picture to your library or send it straight to someone.
Nothing you make gets a watermark, and nothing ever will.
Everything happens on the phone itself, and I never see any of it. Your photos don't hit a cloud, an edge server or a data lake. Nothing you make gets used to train an AI model.
This is a tool, not a big tech company. I built it for myself, as a dad, a tinkerer, an explorer, a tech enthusiast and an amateur photographer. If you're fascinated by change, by history, or you love watching your kids grow up, this app is for you. Rob
Vantage Point is free, and the part you'll use most stays free. No ads, no watermark, and no cap on how many places you keep going back to. That includes the short clip that sweeps from the old photo into your new one, and the timelapse of a whole series, the animated GIF and the sizes for the different apps that came in the latest update. It's all yours to post.
I may add a paid set of features eventually. If I do, nothing that works today gets moved behind it.
Run the next build with me, or just hear from me when something big lands. Both are useful, and neither one signs you up for anything else.
Try it on your own old photos and tell me what broke.
Try the next build on TestFlight
Email is optional: build notes when a new version goes out.
One email when a big update lands, and not much after that.
